The 2008 financial crisis may come to be seen as the demarcation between two regulatory eras. For the past generation, free markets have enjoyed a remarkable intellectual and political ascendancy, championed by academics and governments alike as the best way to promote continuing growth and stability. Now the world suddenly appears to think that some problems are too big and threatening to be solved by free-wheeling businesses. Politicians and commentators of every stripe are calling for greater regulation.

Like most big shifts in the intellectual and political climate, this one appears at first glance to have burst forth overnight. In fact, it’s been bubbling beneath the surface far longer. There has been a gradual awareness that self-regulation and corporate social responsibility go only so far in solving big problems. On the day in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers collapsed and the financial crisis became a financial calamity, you may have missed a less prominent news item. Ian Cheshire, CEO of the UK retailer Kingfisher, told the BBC that “there are certain things that are too big, too long-term … to deal with incrementally. We need a government framework.” Cheshire, a member of the UK Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change,...